An electrical connector for terminating multiple conductor electrical cable is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,335, and includes two parallel rows of electrical contacts. The contacts of a plug version of the connector resiliently engage those of a receptacle version, when the two versions are intermated. The contacts of each version have wire receiving and connecting portions, each in the form of a resilient plate provided with a slot. An insulted conductor of the cable is trimmed to length and inserted in the slot. The conductor tends to widen the slot. Since the plate is resilient, the sides of the slot provide resilient jaws which resist widening of the slot. As a result, the jaws slice through the insulation of the conductor and resiliently engage opposite sides of the wire.
Suitable apparatus have been developed for trimming and inserting the conductors into the connector contacts, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,803,695; 3,864,802; and 3,995,358. Each disclosed apparatus requires an operator to grasp a pair of conductors and insert them into the apparatus. Then the apparatus is actuated, either manually or automatically, to trim the conductor and transfer the trimmed wires into the connector. One type of apparatus requires all conductor pairs to be placed in the apparatus, followed by simultaneous or mass termination of the conductors in the connector contacts. A second type senses each pair of conductors and thereby is automatically triggered to trim and insert the pair into a corresponding pair of connector contacts. While an operator is in the process of selecting and grasping the next pair of conductors, the apparatus of the second type has automatically moved, relative to the connector, in registration with the next pair of connector contacts into which the next pair of conductors will be inserted.
Each type of conductor trimming and inserting apparatus requires a clamp for anchoring the cable to the apparatus while the conductor terminations occur. The clamp is positioned out of the way of the operator and the working parts of the apparatus. While this clamp location is convenient to the operation of the apparatus, the clamp may force the cable to project in a peculiar or undesired direction in respect to the connector to which it becomes assembled.